The Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Program (URP) is comprised of 15 local government agencies in the Santa Clara Valley County where storm water runoff flows into the southern reaches of the San Francisco Bay. In June 1990, the Program was issued a storm water NPDES permit by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) to reduce non-storm water discharges into creeks, marshes, and the Bay. The goal of the program is to develop and implement a Storm Water Management Plan (SWMP) in order to reduce storm water pollutants at their source. The SWMP contains activities known as Performance Standards that each municipality will implement to meet the requirements of the storm water NPDES permit.
As a co-permittee of the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Program, the City of Palo Alto continues to develop and implement all applicable control measures to reduce non-storm water discharges into its storm drain system. These control measures include:
regular monitoring of storm catch basins, manholes, and outfalls to detect and eliminate illegal dumping and illicit connections;
inspection of industrial facilities to ensure compliance with storm water discharge regulations;
field inspections of construction sites which have greater than one acre of disturbed soil;
weekly monitoring of residential construction projects;
response-driven inspections of citizen complaints;
storm water quality monitoring in creeks;
development of outreach programs for residents, commercial businesses, and industrial facilities; and
proper maintenance of the storm drainage system (e.g., street sweeping, regular cleaning of storm drain inlets and pipes, etc.)
